The Political Junkie offers an outside-looking- in view of the US. Each day, we will highlight news and opinion pieces from around the world that are focused on US politics and policy. Agree or disagree with the opinions you will read but take a few minutes to see yourselves as others see you.

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Thursday, September 6, 2012

Israel: Stop quarrelling and get busy

Bibi and Obama under the same bus

If Obama and Netanyahu don't come to their
senses soon, they will go down in history as the men who quarreled like
children instead of working together against a common danger.

Republican candidate Mitt Romney says that Barack Obama
threw Israel under the bus. But Romney is wrong. Obama threw Obama under
the bus. Why? Because in 2009, the newly elected U.S. president faced a
clear challenge: to stop Iran's nuclear program without attacking Iran.

On one hand, Obama couldn't allow himself to let Iran go nuclear. A
nuclear Iran would mean a nuclear Middle East, a nuclear world and
international chaos. On the other hand, Obama couldn't allow himself to
go to war with Iran. Due to his own worldview, as well as the traumas of
Afghanistan and Iraq, an aggressive confrontation with the Shi'ite
powerhouse simply wasn't in the cards.